News articles Smiley shopping programs

FCC Passes Compromise Net Neutrality Rules

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski presides over an open-internet meeting in March 2010.

In a closely watched vote, the Federal Communications Commission approved compromise net neutrality rules Tuesday that would forbid the nation’s largest cable and DSL internet service providers from blocking or slowing online services, while leaving wireless companies with much more latitude.

After five years of contentious debate that polarized the tech-policy world, FCC chief Julius Genachowski made good on President Barack Obama’s campaign pledge to strengthen rules governing the nation’s ISPs. The measure, which passed 3-2 along party lines, did not go as far as supporters would have liked, but the FCC faced steep resistance from Republicans and the powerful telecom lobbying machine.

The FCC’s order is a milestone in the multiyear battle over so-called “net neutrality,” which is the principle that broadband service providers shouldn’t be able to interfere with or block web traffic, or favor their own services at the expense of smaller rivals. Without net neutrality — which ensures that everyone has open access to the internet — revolutionary web startups like Google, Facebook and Twitter may never have gotten off the ground, proponents argue.

The three new rules, which will go into effect early next year, force ISPs to be transparent about how they handle network congestion, prohibit them from blocking traffic such as Skype on wired networks, and outlaw “unreasonable” discrimination on those networks, meaning they can’t put a competing online video service in the slow lane to benefit their own video services.

The measure pleased few, and provoked howls of outrage from those who say the measure will either stifle broadband investment, or not do enough to keep online innovation thriving. Net neutrality advocates on Obama’s left flank were not impressed.

“Despite promising to fulfill President Obama’s campaign promise of enacting network neutrality rules to protect an open Internet, the FCC has instead prioritized the profits of corporations like AT&T over those of the general public, internet entrepreneurs and local businesses across the country,” said Sascha Meinrath, director of the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative.

Meinrath served on Obama’s idealistic technology, media and telecom working group during the 2008 campaign — Genachowski was in charge of the group. Google CEO Eric Schmidt is the Chairman of New America’s board, but that hasn’t stopped Meinrath from ripping the search giant in the past.

Google declined to comment.

During the meeting, Genachowski chided what he called “extremists” on both sides for their “chutzpah.” He said the new rules would advance the administration’s goal of making America’s broadband system the “freest and fastest in the world.”

So what actually has changed here? Although there is much sound and fury being devoted to the new rules, in reality, they differ little from the principles put into place by former Republican FCC chairman Michael Powell in 2005. Those principles set the foundation for the concepts of transparency, nondiscrimination and reasonable network management at the heart of the FCC’s present order.

Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company, offered cautious support for the new rules.

View the Original article

This post was written by: Franklin Manuel

Franklin Manuel is a professional blogger, web designer and front end web developer. Follow him on Twitter